New Mini Album

I've been busy editing photos the past couple of days, so that has scared me off of taking any more. I just got caught up to Christmas and my hand is permanently curled around the mouse from getting to this point.

Now, I have to print and scrapbook them.....

Gracie can't have any siblings. There is no way to keep up with kids and digital cameras.

Here's a quick mini album I made using My Little Bicycle, Cosmo Cricket and Jillibean Soup products. Hope you like.













We had such a great time (at the zoo especially - Gracie loved it!) These were fun memories to scrap.

Congrats to Jacqueline on the beautiful new baby girl and Meagan and Kirt on the engagement!!! Exciting news all around.

No more High Chair

We got a new seat for Gracie that attaches to our kitchen chairs. It's handy and easier to travel with and she thinks it's great!

It should work out well, because we just booked a trip to the Dominican!!!!

Yay for sunshine and beaches!!

Here's Gracie testing it out.





Sorry the pics are so yellow... As you can see, Gracie is big on feeding herself now. She's pretty good at it. She ate a whole cup of yogourt by herself last night without too much mess.

Another Flower Tutorial

I've been playing with flowers lately, so I thought I'd share a quick how-to with you.
They're all very simple, but add dimension and interest to your layouts or projects, plus they're kind of fun!

The Rose

I punched three 1" five petal flowers out using this punch (any five petal flower die or punch will do)



using the same paper ( I know there's only two here, but use three)



And you can turn them into this:



Simply stack the die cuts so that the bottom two are pattern side up and the top one is pattern side down. Adhere them together in the centre only.

Next, fold up the petals on the top flower to make the innermost, tightly curled portion of the flower. It should look like a bit of a cone, point up.

With the second flower, bend the petals up, but curl the tips of the petals back out, using a pen or stylus.

Repeat the last step with the bottom flower until you've achieved the look you like.

Twirled Flowers

These are Sizzix die cut shapes, I believe, but you could make them yourself using edged scissors and simply cutting a circle into a spiral.



Start at the centre and wrap it around a pen or stylus with a fine point, then twirl it up.



Add a few antique pearls in the middle and you're done.

Note: The third flower is made using a cupcake wrapper. I cut the outside, corrugated edge into a swirl similar to the other two and wrapped it back up again. Cute, right??! And easy in a pinch if you run out of pre-made die-cuts. I used a white cupcake liner, but feel free to add interest by spraying with glimmer mist, inking the edges or adding glitter.

Dahlia (?? I could be wrong, but I think a dahlia looks something like this??)

This is the easiest, and actually one of my favourites. Simply take two silk flowers, like the one on the left



roll one into a cone and tuck the end through the hole in the middle of the other. Give it a bit of a tug to pull it through a ways, fluff out the top and you're done!

Mocha Toffee Cupcakes

A few cupcakes I made for a friend's birthday. They were toffee mocha cupcakes. Yummy! The real secret is the icing recipe. It's my mom's. She knows what she's doing in the kitchen :)

Motherhood

We had an exciting week all ready. I had a dentist appointment Monday and Brad couldn't get off in time to get home, so I thought I'd take up the receptionists at the clinic who always say they'd love to watch her while I'm in.

Ha!

Gracie lasted just long enough for them to freeze my mouth and then she lost it! Waterfalls of tears were pouring down her face and she was inconsolable.
Poor girl.

The dentist kept saying, 'it will only take 10 minutes if I can get in there', but we had to go home. My mouth was frozen until Gracie's bedtime at 8.

So, we had a failure at the dentist, but we've had some big successes in Gracie's potty training this week.

Big girl underwear!!

She's gone three days without an accident. She even went on a trip to the library and walked the dog (two separate trips) and managed not to have an accident!



I think it's these special underwear that you can get at WalMart. They have a little extra protection, so you don't have full-blown accidents, but they still feel different than a diaper.





Gracie loves hers.

EDIT: After I hit send on this post, Gracie told me she had to go to the potty. As we were racing upstairs, she peed on my hip..... ahhh.. motherhood.

She also has a new night time ritual. It takes place right at the end of her day, after her bath, playing in the rabbit blankie that Great Auntie Rhonda gave her and her night time snack.




Gracie has started saying, "I love you" when she goes to bed. I say it to her and then she says it back. I feel just like the Grinch when his heart grows at the end of the movie every time I tuck her in now.

Sigh. Makes a little extra freezing worthwhile.

Cosmo Cricket Sketch

Here's a layout I did using Cosmo Cricket papers for a sketch they posted on their blog. I love these pictures, and the papers were perfect for a fun, slightly crazy set of pictures, so they were a good fit!



Here's the sketch:

A Day in the Life

These were actually taken over a few days, but they create a pretty good picture of what our days are like.

Gracie and I have breakfast, talk to my mom on the phone, and then start in on chores.

Gracie is getting good at laundry:





She likes it, I swear!

While folding, we always have lots of time for sock elephants....



Then, we have lunch and Gracie has a nap while I finish up on chores or check emails or scrapbook, until she wakes up.

I always like to listen for a few minutes when she wakes up, because she's pretty funny. She likes to sing or play with her aquarium or make various noises.... Today, she started calling Bailey in to play with her. Sorry, it's hard to see.






Once we're up, we have a little snack and then take Bailey for a walk (unless it's freezing) and resume playing.

Gracie and I built a small fort just for her toys.




Hmmm... should a hockey stick go in the fort??



Yep!! Every toy from the toy box should be able to play in the fort.



And then Gracie wanted to be tucked in under her favourite blankie of the moment, (one of my mom's beautiful quilts) with a few of her dolls for a quick cat nap.




Soon, Brad gets home and that's really exciting. Then supper, a bath, a snack, some more play time and bed. Throw in a few trips to the potty, a few tears over not being able to put on her monkey costume, numerous songs and books, and this is what our days look like.

Gracie goes to sleep at about 8, and at about 8:30 I usually think, "hmmmm Gracie would like this, too bad she's not up."

Then I think, "are you crazy? Use this time to get something done!"

Playing with Techniques

I came across some pictures from Christmas 2009 the other day and decided to scrap them.

I had fun with this layout. I played with my cricut alot, cutting out snowflakes, letters and a cute fairy silhouette. I added beads, used glitter pens, glimmer mist, glossy accents, vellum and anything else I could get my hands on to make everything look wintry and shimmery.



I just picked up some patterned paper when I was at The Urban Scrapbook the other day, manufactured by Fancy Pants Designs, that had this cute card on it (with the saying about fairytales coming true). When I saw it, it made me think of these pictures, and spurred on the whole layout.

I made a pocket for the card using my Scor-Pal to make the folds crisp, and my cricut to cut out the notch on the top.



You may not be able to tell from this picture, but I cut out this fairy twice. I wanted to highlight the wings, so I took the first copy and used some super-sticky double sided tape and added beads and glimmer mist to the wings.

I took the second fairy and doodled around the wing's cutouts with a shimmery pen and then topped it off with glossy accents.

I glued the body of the fairy together, just leaving the wings separate, so you could see the beads and shimmer through the cut outs and the wings looked more dimensional.

You may notice some glimmer mist on the pocket and the snowflakes as well. I was really into a shimmery look.



Here, I just cut out the word fairies using blue vellum, and then layered it over a slightly different shade of blue vellum and cut it out using decorative scissors. Then I traced the letters with my glimmer pen to make them standout.

It's a very simple layout, without much thought, but I felt like a kid again, just playing and remembering why I love to be crafty. Very fun!

Remember to go check out my layouts here to let the store know you like them!

Contest

I entered a contest at the Urban Scrapbook, a great local scrapbooking store. If you want to see my entries, and lots of others, go here.

Leave a comment on the post if you like what you see.

Otherwise, just enjoy the inspiration!

Thanks!

Star Album

My mom learned ho to make these great star mini albums at a make and take at Artisan Emporium in Hanna.

She showed me how to make my own and I think they're very cute.



You can either carry it with you as a mini album, or display all the photos and the cute star fold on your coffee table at home.



Just add photos and it's complete!



Neat right? One gift made.....

Spinning and Shrieking

This is what goes on in our house lately.

Gracie loves to spin. I think she picked this up from her big cousin Jada. We go to a class at the library and if they spin once, she keeps it up until I drag her away from the front of the group. I'm pretty sure she gets her love of the spotlight from her dad.






She also has a very shrieky laugh lately. Watch your eardrums. It's high-pitched.

Also, don't mind the apple bits in her mouth..... :)

Good Eater

Gracie really is a good eater, I'm pretty lucky. Lately, she loves to snack on an apple.



I gave her an apple the other day while we were at strollercise. A few laps later, I checked on her, and the whole thing was gone, core, stem, everything. Unless she casually tossed it overboard while we ran, she ate the entire apple in seconds (that's right, I'm that fast).

Not sure whether that means I'm a bad parent or she's a good eater (as you can tell from the title, I hope you'll side with me).



Just in case those stories about apple trees growing in your belly are true, I started using the apple corer that I got at IKEA about a year ago.... I knew I'd use it one day!

Onion Skin Album

Just thought I'd share an album I made about a month ago. It's a cute little album that keeps folding out to reveal new layers (I believe that's why it's called an onion skin album).



This album consists of three envelopes (with side and bottom flaps), each opening to reveal the next, and a small accordian album tucked inside.





It holds a ton of photos (I'd recommend printing a set of 2x3" photos) and is a fun way to showcase your memories.







The only problem? Every time you see someone look through it, you'll want to rearrange the layers so that it's closed properly. Unless you're not OCD like me, that is :)



These pictures are special to me, because they're some of the last photos I have of my Grandpa. It's a nice memory to keep separate, because it reminds me of a fun day in the park with family.

If you'd like to learn how to make an onion skin, feel free to send me an email otherwise, there is a helpful tutorial on Scrapbook and Cards Today's blog.